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Monday, August 15, 2011

The Week That Ended

First off, a HUGE thank you for your kind response to my pretty new project.

This one is for the shop!
bird nest pendant

I've been feeling decidedly lack luster lately, seeming to always be needed as accompanist and never as a soloist, the one that makes impressively good wheat bread while everyone goes gaga over someone else's decidedly more flashy style of baking.  I get it, I do, and I'm happy that there are flashy people in this world, and I LIKE doing plain and simple things....but can I say how lovely it feels to post a picture of a new project and have FIVE people request it for their own?  And I made it myself?

(Did I mention that I auditioned for an upcoming show, and was passed over in favor of BYU opera students with enormously huge and fabulous voices?  No?  Well...I didn't have time for rehearsals anyway I guess.  But I'm looking forward to hearing my little brother and husband perform in the show!)

We're so happy to see a new week around here- I was Monster Mom last week, honestly.  I said things, in frustration, to the kids I promised I'd never say.  I stormed and stomped and slammed and made an enormous fool of myself over and over.  Wonder Boy decided to stay up until 2:30 one night, and then the next threw a party from 2 till 6.  I slept in when he slept in, which means the girls gorged themselves on cartoons and marshmallows (judging from what I found after the fact,) and the kitchen was a disaster.

Saturday rolled around, and found my husband working in the office for the day.  The kids and I managed to get out the door by 9:00 (after an hour of foot stomping and hustling on my part) to pick up our produce basket.  We ran errands at the bank and library, and came home in time for lunch with all three children howling about one thing or the other.  It took nearly an hour to clean the girls' room enough to see the floor AND the beds.  And then....Wonder Boy fell asleep.  I got the kitchen entirely cleaned.  My saintly dad showed up to help me weed in the back yard- he told me, once he arrived, that "If you point out to someone they have 6 foot tall weeds in their backyard, then it's your job to come and help pull them."  Ahem.  We spent an hour and a half pulling and digging and stuffing them all into the yard waste bin, while Wonder Boy laid on a blanket in the grass.  Mimi came and joined us after a few minutes, the STINKER.  But Ernie slept.  And for the first time that week, I felt like we were getting somewhere, so thank you Dad.

(Oh, this is what Mimi looked like at 4:30 that afternoon.  She slept till 6.)
she fell asleep watching a movie

While nursing Wonder Boy this morning, around 5, I heard Mimi start to wail.  She was REALLY mad.  I threw Wonder Boy back into his crib, and went in the girls' dark room...no Mimi in her bed.  Turned a bit to the right...bingo.  Feet sticking out from under the bed, and one really, truly angry curly head under the bed frame.  How on earth did she end up sleeping under there?  I heard a thump around 1 in the morning, which might have been her coming off her own mattress (a cheap-o Ikea mattress that has the added benefit of being about 5" tall.  Tumbling off it is no biggie.)

This morning went great.  Real oatmeal for breakfast, I was up with the girls so no clandestine sweets, we all painted our nails, school was fabulous, lunch was delicious, we had time to read a whole stack of books before nap time.  Unfortunately, the girls chose to not nap.  Instead, they came out every 10 minutes or so to request something new, and wake up Wonder Boy (again and again) as he lay dozing on my lap.  Ernie is achingly crazy now, sobbing in her room because I won't let her watch cartoons, and Mimi walked too close to her, and she's afraid of toddlers, and she won't stop crying if I say NO again, and.... I think we'll spend some time painting this afternoon, once she's had a good cry out.  She's desperately tired, I can see that!  At least the kitchen is clean.

(Wait.  News flash: My little sister is coming...the SMOOTHIE SISTER.  And she's bringing smoothies for all of us.  We're saved :)  

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Whew!! I am exhausted after reading about your days! I love hearing the stories about your family though. And I will admit,I do think to myself, "I'm glad that part is over for me!" Except the reading stacks of books before nap time! That sounds fun:)

Elizabeth said...

Oh, my. What a two days you had. AS for the stomping around...We've all done it. The children love you and will forget all of that. I still can't believe all that you accomplish. Remember that you are still the mother of a new baby and it is exhausting and challenging. Don't judge yourself too harshly. You will gave good and bad days, but it all works out. Prayers for you during this sweet (yes, really) time. :)

Ticia said...

I would agree with your Dad, and bravo for coming to help pull.

My little Princess came down in the middle of the night last night forlorn because she couldn't find her stuffed dog. Needless to say the rest of the night was not all that restful.